2021 Speech Day

Years 11 and 12 students and their parents gathered at QPAC in November for 2021 Speech Day. Attendees heard from Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Humphrey, Headmaster Anthony Micallef, outgoing School Captain Tom Stunden, with an inspiring address from guest speaker Old Boy Dr Sean Parsons ’97.

The event recognised high-achieving academic and cocurricular students and farewelled the graduating Class of 2021. Restrictions prevented other year levels from attending in person, but they were able to watch the live stream from school.

Dr Parsons is responsible for two remarkable medical breakthroughs in the past decade. His company, Ellume, developed an affordable test that provides a fast diagnosis of the flu – assisting the 3500 Australians and 500,000 people worldwide who die of flu-related illness each year. The achievement was possible through harnessing fluorescent nanoparticles to detect influenza particles.

In his speech, Dr Parsons pointed out that innovations over the past few decades have brought about significant changes to the way people live their lives, and highlighted the need to be aware of the things that are likely to remain constant.

“Ellume was founded around the constant that is common infectious diseases,” he said. “Humans are likely to be living with these illnesses indefinitely and, occasionally, a new one arrives that causes a global pandemic.”

Working in the ICU, Dr Parsons realised that while individual care from doctors was important, helping one patient at a time ‘did not scale well’.

“I realised that if you could enable people to test themselves, and potentially even connect them to treatment without physically presenting to a clinician, you could make a huge impact on the total number of people with the disease and the total number of people dying from illness,” he said. “Consumer diagnostics was a huge new category of healthcare delivery waiting to happen.”

In response to COVID-19, Dr Parsons developed an over-the-counter test that can be completed in less than 15 minutes. After a $40M

US Government grant to accelerate development and build manufacturing capacity, Ellume this year signed a $300M contract to build a facility in the US and supply 8.5 million tests.

In concluding his speech, Dr Parsons encouraged BGS boys to listen to others but make their own decisions. “You are in the early phase of your own adventure,” he said. “I wish you all the best. You should ensure you take your own path, heeding the words of others, but making your own decisions.”

In their speeches, the Chairman and Headmaster outlined a successful year despite the challenges of COVID restrictions. Both paid tribute to students, parents and staff for their resilience, efforts and achievements in 2021.